Call of Duty: Black Ops breaks five day sales record

What better way to follow up record setting launch sales than by going on to obliterate a five-day sales record? According to a press release issued by Activision, the latest Call of Duty release has done exactly that, raking in over $650 million in worldwide sales.Call of Duty: Black Ops bested its predecessor Call of Duty: Modern Warfare2 which tallied $550 million after five days on the market. Black Ops has already claimed the record for highest launch sales with $360 million in sales in its first 24 hours on the market outselling Modern Warefare 2 by $50 million.

“Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard. “The title’s success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.”

He might be right. The top-grossing movie after five days, The Dark Knight, managed $200 million over the same length of time. Of course, Black Ops retails for about six times more than the average movie ticket.

Black Ops’ sales also set personal records for Amazon and GameStop achieving the highest launch sales for any video game with both companies.

Activision also announced that Black Ops has also set new highs in the multiplayer realm with players logging over 5.9 million hours of online play on Xbox Live during the first 24 hours after the game’s release. Modern Warfare 2 players played for 5.2 million hours on launch day through Xbox Live.

And with Black Friday kicking off the holiday shopping season next week, it’s likely that Black Ops hasn’t broken its last sales record.